John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks
Photo:
Frank Micelotta/Associated Press
Streaming outlets, cable networks fuel record number of original TV shows
ByJoe Flint
There were a record 409 scripted television shows on broadcast, cable
and streaming services this year, according to research by FX Networks. The
rise in scripted shows has been both a blessing and a curse for the TV
industry and viewers. On the one hand, more shows mean more
opportunities for actors, writers and producers as well as more choice
for TV fans. Conversely, the glut of scripted shows is making it
harder for any one show to break through the clutter. Ratings at the
broadcast networks and many big cable channels including FX and TNT are
down this year, in large part because of the fragmentation of the
viewing audience. FX Networks Chief Executive John Landgraf has
bemoaned the growth in scripted content, saying that there is not enough
creative talent to maintain current levels. “The bubble has
created a huge challenge in finding compelling original shows and the
level of talent needed to sustain those stories,” he said earlier this
year. FX Networks is a unit of 21st Century Fox, which until 2013 was part of the same company as Wall Street Journal-owner News Corp. The 409 series, which don’t included unscripted shows,
movies, mini-series, news or sports, are an increase of 9% from 2014
when there were 376 series. Since 2009, the number of scripted series
has grown by 94%, according to FX. Driving the increases are cable networks and streaming services, which have been spending heavily on original content. Netflix has indicated recently it has no plans to slow down on creating
content and Hulu has also stepped up its commitment to original fare.
LOS
ANGELES — In 87 years of Oscar history, it has only happened once. Only
one studio, United Artists, with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,”
“Rocky” and “Annie Hall,” in the 1970s, has released a best picture
winner three years in a row.
But 20th Century Fox, for better or worse, is taking a run at the record books.
In
a year of tangled Oscar prospects at multiple studios, Fox has at least
four films with a credible shot at a best picture nomination. They are “The Revenant,”
a frontier-era tour de force directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu; “The
Martian,” Ridley Scott’s 3-D blockbuster; “Joy,” starring Jennifer
Lawrence as the inventor of the Miracle Mop; and “Brooklyn,” a period
romance showcasing Saoirse Ronan.
It is an embarrassment of riches — especially considering that Fox, through its art house label and partnership with New Regency Productions, had the Oscar-winning best picture earlier this year, with Mr. Iñárritu’s “Birdman,” and the year before, with Steve McQueen’s blistering “12 Years a Slave.”
Matt Damon in “The Martian.”Credit
Aidan Monaghan/Twentieth Century Fox
But
the strong slate of contenders also has the makings of a monumental
headache. Fox now faces the delicate task of making each child feel
equally loved.
Sibling
rivalry is already festering under the surface, with some people
connected to “The Revenant,” which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, worrying
that Fox will find subtle ways to favor “The Martian,”
in part because of the studio’s long relationship with Mr. Scott. (Fox
declined to comment for this article, along with New Regency, which
produced and financed “The Revenant.”)
Other
studios face a similar challenge. At Universal, for instance, “Straight
Outta Compton” has unexpectedly moved ahead of “Steve Jobs” as the
great awards hope. But nowhere is the jockeying as pronounced as it is
at Fox.
Is
Fox taking out equal “for-your-consideration” ads in Variety for each
film? Did “Joy,” directed by David O. Russell, get better hors d’oeuvres
for its event than “Brooklyn,” directed by the relatively unknown John
Crowley? It may sound petty, but teams of producers, agents and
publicists are paying meticulous attention, and they will scream bloody
murder if they feel slighted. In some ways, it is a fight about money;
Oscar campaigns cost millions of dollars.
“Fox
is one of the savviest studios when it comes to winning Oscars, but
simultaneously managing multiple best picture campaigns — not to mention
four — can be enormously complicated,” said Sue Fleishman, the founder
of September Media, an entertainment-focused communications consultancy.
Ms. Fleishman, a former Universal and Warner Bros. executive, added,
“You have to figure out how best to support each contender without
damaging the others.”
It is too early, of course, to say whether one of the Fox films will end up a winner on Feb. 28, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
hands out its little gold statues in a ceremony broadcast on ABC.
Voting does not begin until Dec. 30, and some major films have still not
been widely seen, including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which some
awards strategists think could shake up the race when it arrives on Dec. 18.
Jennifer Lawrence in “Joy.”Credit
Francois Duhamel/Twentieth Century Fox
“Spotlight,”
about the Boston journalists who exposed the local Catholic
Archdiocese’s cover-up of child sexual abuse, is currently the film to
beat, according to the Oscar prognosticators followed by Gold Derby,
an entertainment honors site. But most handicappers have “The Revenant”
and “The Martian” hot on its heels, with “Joy,” which has still not
been widely shown, and “Brooklyn,” which has taken in roughly $8 million
in relatively limited release, not far behind.
Adding
to this year’s awards complexity for Fox, which also has a best
animated film candidate in “The Peanuts Movie,” none of its potential
best picture nominees have the same strengths and weaknesses.
“The
Martian,” which has taken in more than $545 million worldwide since its
release in October, is certainly an audience favorite. Starring a
convivial Matt Damon as a stranded astronaut, “The Martian” was also a
critical success, scoring a powerful 80 on Metacritic.com, a site that compiles film reviews.
Popularity
and perhaps an underlying sense that the film will reap honors for its
technical achievement have helped push “The Martian” toward the front of
the pack. But few Oscar experts list Mr. Damon as their top prospect
for an acting statuette, an obvious soft spot for the film.
A
greater advantage for “The Martian” may lie in a vast pool of film
industry respect, if not quite love, for Mr. Scott. At the age of 78, he
has directed about two dozen feature films, including
“Gladiator,”
which was named best picture in 2001. But he has never personally won an
Oscar, despite three directing nominations — and Hollywood’s urge to
make good for that sort of oversight helped push both “The Departed” and
its director, Martin Scorsese (who had never won), to Oscar victories
in 2007.
Mr.
DiCaprio has never won an Oscar, either. His largely silent performance
in “The Revenant” as a severely wounded frontiersman, will almost
assuredly bring him a sixth nomination — and very likely an ultimate win, Oscar diviners agree. (Contrary to Internet rumor, Mr. DiCaprio does not get “raped by a bear” in the film, which arrives in limited release on Christmas Day.)
Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn.”Credit
Kerry Brown/20th Century Fox
“The
Revenant,” which has a SWAT team of publicists and awards consultants
working on its behalf, is a visually arresting film that some Oscar
forecasters have compared to
“The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick’s critically adored 2011 drama.
Despite the gore in Mr. Iñárritu’s movie — a horse is disemboweled,
among other bloody sequences — New Regency sees “The Revenant” as an
audience pleaser, attracting multiplex crowds of men and women alike.
But
even blockbuster ticket sales, visual wizardry and Mr. DiCaprio’s
performance may not be enough to beat the odds. According to Libby
Wertin, a researcher at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, no
director has ever had a film win back-to-back best picture Oscars. “Of
course, these days, few directors besides Woody Allen manage to have
films released in consecutive years with any regularity,” Ms. Wertin
noted in an email.
For
the moment, Oscar prospects for Mr. Russell’s “Joy” are murkier. Mr.
Russell is known for some of the best-received films in recent years,
including “The Fighter,’’ “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American
Hustle.” So he is in some ways competing against his own very strong
track record. How does “Joy” stack up? Only finished recently after
heavy re-editing (test audiences did not like the initial third act),
the feel-good “Joy” has been receiving good-but-not-quite-great tastemaker buzz.
The
film’s chances may ultimately rest on good will for Ms. Lawrence, who
won a best actress Oscar for “Silver Linings Playbook.” Because of its
story, “Joy” may also resonate strongly with female voters. At a recent
screening for awards voters, Ms. Lawrence said the film acknowledges
“women who are the unsung heroes of their households.”
Fox
is invested in doing right by “Joy” on the awards circuit, in part
because of its long relationship with John Davis, one of five credited
producers. (Mr. Davis’s “Garfield” and “Predator” series have been major
moneymakers for Fox over the years.)
As
with Sony’s “Concussion,” about a Nigerian-born doctor who takes on the
National Football League, “Brooklyn” and its cagey backers from Fox
Searchlight have been looking to connect with something grand — the
nation’s soul-searching over immigration — while delivering more than
just white male leads at a time when critics have become wary of them.
“Brooklyn” is about a young Irish woman’s quest for love and a better
life in America of 60 years ago.
That
might be enough to land “Brooklyn” among the final slate of eight or
nine best picture nominees. Winning is a long shot, but Fox’s specialty
division is ceding nothing. (In fact, the unit also believes that Paolo
Sorrentino’s meditation on aging, “Youth,” which opens on Friday in New
York and Los Angeles, also has a shot at a best picture nomination.)
In
recent days, entertainment journalists received for-your-consideration
booklets for “Brooklyn” that carried glowing comments from 22 critics.
“This Year’s Most Stirring Film,” it started.
Those involved with “The Martian,” “Joy” and “The Revenant” may disagree, of course.
It's unclear whether Sylvester Stallone will have an on-screen role though he will executive produce the drama.
Hot on the heels of Rocky box office follow-up Creed, Fox is targeting a reboot of Rambo with Sylvester Stallone. The network is teaming with the franchise's star for Rambo: New Blood, a potential TV series based on the Rambo feature films with Stallone on board to exec produce, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. It's unclear whether Stallone will have an on-screen role in the drama, which revolves around Rambo and his son. Written by Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive), the Rambo TV
series hails from Entertainment One and Avi Lerner's Millennium Films.
The project explores the relationship between Rambo and his son, J.R., a
former Navy SEAL who has never been featured in any of the Rambo movies. Rambo would be a central character in the potential series, a change from CBS' one-time Beverly Hills Cop reboot that centered on Axel Foley's son, with star Eddie Murphy only attached for infrequent appearances.
The deal comes two years after eOne and NuImage/Millennium Films
signed a deal to develop and co-produce a TV series based on the Rambo property.
At the time, the companies said they were in negotiations with Stallone
to be involved both on-screen and as part of the creative team, though a
Stallone representative told THRat the time that he wouldn't reprise his famed role as John Rambo. The potential TV series comes as the fifth installment in the Rambo film series, Rambo: Last Blood, had been put on hold. For Fox, meanwhile, the Rambo revival arrives as the network also is developing a limited series based on the Stallone-starring Expendables franchise. Fox's Rambo will be produced by eOne, Millennium Films with
Stuart, Stallone and Lerner on board to exec produce. eOne exec vp
Carrie Stein will oversee. Rambo becomes the latest movie-to-TV revival as broadcast,
cable networks and streaming services look for known properties in a bid
to break through the cluttered original scripted programming
marketplace. NBC is readying a series based on Taken, and revivals of features including Lethal Weapon (Fox), Behind Enemy Lines (Fox), Training Day (CBS) and My Best Friend's Wedding (ABC) are also in the works. Key to their success is having the original producers involved, which Rambo has in spades with Stallone.
As
you’ve probably heard, broadcast television is suffering through its
Lowest Ratings Ever this fall. But that doesn’t mean every show is a
goner (networks have to air something — even if it is Dr. Ken).
We looked at the ratings to date and spoke to industry insiders to get a
sense of which shows are likely to stick around for awhile, and which
are in serious jeopardy. Here’s how the field currently stands (ranked
from the highest to lowest based on average 18-49 demo ratings for the
season including seven days of DVR playback when available):
Blindspot (NBC) — Now tats the way you do it: The fall’s biggest new success story is Blindspot with 12.8 million viewers and a 3.8 rating (why, it’s matching ABC’s Scandal). Having a lead-in from The Voice helps significantly, but last fall’s short-lived State of Affairs proved a show can flop in this slot regardless of having that front-loaded boost. Now here’s the shocking part: Blindspot,
which stars Jaimie Alexander as Jason Bourne-like operative, is really
the only outright new hit in the 2015-16 season so far; it’s the one new
title among the Top 10 shows when measuring either adult demo or total viewers. Most other freshman series doing well-ish still don’t come close to Blindspot’s average even with a lot on DVR playback added. Like see here in the No. 2 slot…
Quantico (ABC) – It’s Shonda Rhimes karaoke that worked: ABC’s soapy thriller has a 2.8 rating thanks to doubling its numbers with DVR.
Supergirl (CBS) — Kara’s next mission should be to
rescue her slipping Nielsens. Averaging 2.8 for the season, sure, but
started big and recently hit a new low. Still, Supergirl should receive a full-season order any day now.
Life in Pieces (CBS) — A comedy that snagged it’s
full season order and has a 2.5 rating that every other new comedy would
envy. But it’s losing more than half of the huge Big Bang Theory lead-in. We suspect CBS will give some other series a chance after Big Bang later this season instead, and then we’ll see if Life in Pieces can stay intact.
Limitless (CBS) — Picked up for the season — it’s
doing well enough — but could still use some of that magical NZT for
its ho-hum numbers (2.5 rating), or at least some generic Adderall.
Heroes Reborn (NBC) — A high-profile limited series
reboot with a 2.3 rating. The “evos” are not supposed to return, but we
suspect NBC at least wants this title in its arsenal of options for
consideration after seeing its pilots this spring, just in case the
network wants to do another round (Heroes Reborn Again?).
The Muppets (ABC) — One of fall’s biggest launches
felt a few bumps (2.3 average). ABC is changing showrunners and gave the
series a mere three more episodes and called it a “full season” pickup
(nine episodes is the tradition, especially for broadcast comedies,
albiet it’s a standard that’s increasingly being ignored). ABC wants to
make The Muppets better, and we suspect the show will have yet another chance next season.
Rosewood (Fox) — Finally, a Fox show makes the list. Rosewood is like The Mysteries of Laura last
season — a Wednesday night procedural most expected to perform
poorly that surprised by doing slightly better than poorly (a 2.1
rating, to be exact). It scored a full season order and has good odds to
stick around beyond that given the rest of Fox’s lineup.
Scream Queens (Fox) — The most stunning
disappointment of the fall (2.1 average), given the show’s
high-profile cast, producers and pre-premiere polling data. Still, the
scuttlebutt around the network is Fox will keep Ryan Murphy’s campy
horror comedy for a re-launch next season with a new premise and a few
surviving cast members (the rumor is it will become Scream Queens: Summer Camp).
Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris (NBC) —
Broadcast’s only new show this fall that wasn’t a traditional scripted
drama or sitcom. Sadly for many this did not fulfill its stated promise
of delivering the best time ever (1.7 rating). Feels done, but it’s fate
is currently unclear.
Code Black (CBS) — CBS threw five more episodes at
this medical drama to finish out its first season (1.7 rating), but its
season 2 survival odds are on life support.
Dr. Ken (ABC) — Got a full season. Since Dr. Ken is (almost) matching lead-in Last Man Standing on tough Friday nights, and because ABC has had such a brutal time filling this slot in the past (Cristela, Malibu Country, etc), we’re hearing the doctor is more likely to keep sticking around than not despite its 1.6 rating.
Grandfathered and The Grinder (Fox) — Fox’s news hows are in rough shape, but the network has to have some content and some stability. Tuesday night’s Grandfathered and The Grinder
are considered ad-friendly shows with promotable stars (John Stamos,
Rob Lowe) and they’re sticking around even though nobody is happy with
the numbers. Grandfathered is doing a 1.6 rating and Grinder has a 1.4.
Blood & Oil (ABC) — A bust: Don Johnson’s return saw its order cut and the title is off ABC’s midseason schedule after coming up dry in the ratings (1.5).
The Player (NBC) — With that 1.3 average, Wesley Snipes’ game was over weeks ago.
Minority Report (Fox) — Like Scream Queens, a surprising outcome given the auspices (in this case producer Steven Spielberg) and brand (based on the 2002 film). And like The Player and Blood & Oil, this hasn’t been officially canceled, but given it’s numbers (a 1.2 rating), and it’s production cut-down, you don’t need to be a Precog to figure out Minority Report’s fate.
Wicked City (ABC) — Wicked City managed the seemingly impossible: In a season where nothing is being officially canceled, it got officially canceled (0.8 average).
Truth Be Told (NBC) — Another Not Officially Dead
Yet show that saw its order cut. The negative reviews and a nearly
negative Nielsen rating (0.7 average) for a Friday night comedy that
makes Dr. Ken look like The Big Bang Theory.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW) — Squeaked out an order
for a five more episodes this week. But with a 0.3 average it’s tough
to see even occasional broken-toy hoarder The CW keeping this
show instead of trying something fresh next season.
As NPR came of age in the 1980s, its audience matured with it. Three decades later, that is starting to look like a problem. Many
of the listeners who grew up with NPR are now reaching retirement age,
leaving NPR with a challenge: How can it attract younger and middle-aged
audiences — whose numbers are shrinking — to replace them? NPR’s
research shows a growing gulf in who is listening to the likes of
“Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” the daily news programs
that have propelled public radio for more than 30 years. Morning
listening has dropped 11 percent overall since 2010, according to Nielsen research that NPR has made public; afternoon listening is down 6 percent over the same period. Perhaps
more troubling are the broader demographic trends. NPR’s signal has
gradually been fading among the young. Listening among “Morning
Edition’s” audience, for example, has declined 20 percent among people
under 55 in the past five years. Listening for “All Things Considered”
has dropped about 25 percent among those in the 45-to-54 segment. The growth market? People over 65, who were increasing in both the morning and afternoon hours. The
graying of NPR, and the declines overall, are potentially perilous to
the public radio ecosystem.
NPR, based in Washington, serves programs to
nearly 900 “member” stations, which rely in large part on financial
contributions from their listeners. The stations, in turn, kick back
some of their pledge-drive dollars to NPR to license such programs as
“Car Talk,” “Fresh Air” and “Morning Edition” (federal tax dollars
supply only a small part of stations’ annual budgets, and virtually none
of NPR’s). But as audiences drift to newer on-demand audio
sources such as podcasts and streaming, the bonds with local stations —
and the contributions that come with them — may be fraying. “It’s
a problem, and no one has really figured out what to do about it,” said
Jeff Hansen, the program director at Seattle public station KUOW (94.9
FM). He noted that public radio was invented by people in their 20s in
the 1970s, largely at stations funded by colleges and universities.
“What they didn’t realize at the time was that what they were inventing
was programming for people like themselves — baby boomers with college
degrees.” That audience has largely stayed loyal. The median age
of public radio listeners has roughly tracked the median age of baby
boomers. The median NPR listener was 45 years old in 1995; now he or she
is 54, according to Tom Thomas, co-chief executive of the Station Resource Group,
a public-radio strategy and research consortium. “The [aging] trend has
been gentle and continuous for the last 20 years,” he said. To
shore up its appeal to a younger crowd, NPR’s contemporary managers say
that they are going where younger ears are, both via digital technology
and with programming that has younger people in mind. Although radio is
still, by far, the dominant way to listen, NPR’s distribution chain now
includes podcasts, Web text and streams, satellite broadcasting and
social media. Among its news initiatives, NPR in October and early November launched a series on the lives of 15-year-old girls around the world; it played on all of NPR’s news shows and on NPR.org. NPR also has attempted to foster a community of younger listeners through “Generation Listen,” a Web site that features audio and text stories, as well as news of community events hosted by young NPR listeners. In more subtle changes, NPR added two new, younger hosts — Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers
— to “All Things Considered” this summer, joining 68-year-old Robert
Siegel. And it promoted Michel Martin, an African American woman who is
the former host of “Tell Me More” (canceled last year) and now hosts
“Weekend All Things Considered.” Editorial Director Michael Oreskes said the anchor reset is “an invitation to both traditional listeners and new ones to think about the programs in new ways.” Some
of the other brand-name talent at NPR illustrates the situation:
Talk-show host Diane Rehm is 79; senior national correspondent Linda
Wertheimer is 72; legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg is 71, and
“Weekend Edition Saturday” host Scott Simon is a relative youngster at
63. Last year, the organization launched a mobile app, NPR One,
that streams both national and local public-radio stories via
smartphones and tablets. NPR said downloads of the app have been
growing, but it hasn’t released figures (notably, “Serial” — the massively popular and critically praised podcast — was produced not by NPR but by an independent public-radio organization, Chicago Public Media’s “This American Life”).
ByWill Mendelson Jennifer Aniston was replaced by a stand-in during one scene on an episode of the beloved sitcom
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
Eagle eyes! Jennifer Aniston was replaced by a stand-in on an episode of Friends, and it wasn’t until recently that a particular fan noticed. Jordan D’Amico took to the website RecentlyHeard
to document his stealthy observation. He explained that during a
marathon viewing, he noticed that Aniston — who played Rachel Green —
was replaced during one scene in the Season 9 episode entitled “The One
With the Mugging.”
“Only a few minutes into the episode, an
enthusiastic Rachel rushes into Monica’s apartment to tell Joey that he
got an audition with the famous and fictional actor, Leonard Hayes,
played by Jeff Goldblum,” D’Amico wrote. “The three friends admit to admiring the actor. Joey (played by Matthew LeBlanc) goes to sit back down. It’s at this point that… BAM!”
Lo
and behold, the Emmy-winning actress, 46, was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a stand-in with much darker hair and who was wearing a
different colored shirt, was standing and smiling next to Joey, where
Rachel was supposed to be.
This isn’t the first time a fan has noticed an error on the beloved sitcom. In another episode, Courteney Cox’s stand-in was also accidentally left in.
Friends
aired on NBC from September 1994 to May 2004, spanning 10 seasons. In
addition to Cox, LeBlanc, and Aniston, the show also starred Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry.
Tell Us: Did you notice the stand-in on the episode?
Protesters
disrupted a broadcast Sharon Stone hosted in 1992, and despite a Secret
Service security detail and rigorous audience-vetting process, the
controversial candidate could spark similar outbursts on live TV.
In 1992, during a monologue delivered by Sharon Stone spoofing her infamous crotch-baring scene from Basic Instinct, six protesters lurking in the audience of Saturday Night Live
surged toward the stage. They were opposing "Hollywood's homophobia and
misogyny as exemplified in the film," they later explained. (Stone
played a bisexual murder suspect.) The group was stopped by NBC guards before they could get there, but
their voices could be heard on the broadcast. The four men and two women
were held by security until police arrived and were later charged with
disorderly conduct and harassment. Stone, for her part, "wasn't
flustered at all," according to one eyewitness.
That incident was an isolated one at SNL. But despite the
addition of a Secret Service security detail to an already rigorous
audience-vetting process, history runs perhaps its strongest risk of
repeating itself Nov. 7 when the controversial Republican presidential
candidate Donald Trump takes the stage as host. And heckling will happen, if Luke Montgomery has anything to do with
it. The Los Angeles-based activist and founder of the anti-Trump
campaign Deport Racism 2016 is offering $5,000 to anyone in the studio audience heard saying "deport racism" or "Trump is a racist" on the air. The group is one of several protesting Trump's SNL
appearance over "racist and xenophobic language" they say he's used
throughout his campaign — with Latinos and Latino-Americans targeted in
particular. Montgomery's is the only group, however, that is not calling
on the network to cancel his appearance, but rather is encouraging
hecklers to infiltrate and hijack the event. "They're doing it for ratings," Montgomery tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a pretty crass game that they're playing. And we are going to try to steal their thunder and steal the spotlight."
Just how big a spotlight? It's impossible to predict, but the ratings
high watermark for the show involved another highly controversial
Republican candidate: Sarah Palin's 2008 appearance opposite
doppelganger Tina Fey drew an astounding 17 million viewers in the first
half-hour. Montgomery says the response to his offer has been enthusiastic, but
he won't reveal specifics as to how many people have said they will try
to penetrate the taping at 30 Rockefeller Center or how they intend on
going about it. "We're really hopeful," he says. "I can't really tell
you much more than that.
We don't want to compromise any plans that are
being made." Representatives for SNL are tight-lipped about what security
measures are being taken for Trump's appearance. A New York Police
Department spokesman tells THR that "adequate security"
measures will be in place. The Secret Service, which now follows Trump
on the campaign trail, did not respond to requests for comment. If the procedure is anything like those put in place for Hillary
Clinton's appearance on the Oct. 3 season premiere, potential protesters
will have to cross two security checkpoints. According to one frequent SNL
attendee, audience members who arrive at 30 Rock for both the dress
rehearsal and live taping are placed into one of several efficiently run
lines: There's a VIP line, a line for people seated on the floor
(closest to the stage) and a standby line.
After moving through a metal detector and checking in with a NBC
employee, visitors are handed a ticket and given a wristband. They are
then loaded onto an elevator bound for Studio 8H. At regular tapings,
after getting off on the eighth floor, they are then instructed not to
use cameras or smartphones during the taping. Their ticket is then taken
from them — no souvenirs, sorry — and they are guided to a seat. During the season-opener featuring Clinton, however, there was
another checkpoint on the eighth floor, where Secret Service agents
patted audience members down, scanned them with metal-detector wands and
thoroughly rummaged through their handbags. About 40 people get seats on the floor, the section directly in front
of the stage where the band sits and the opening monologue is
delivered. The seats are about eight feet from the host's mark, and
anyone sitting there during the live broadcast could easily access Trump
and get in front of the cameras. The rest of the theater's 200-odd seats are in the stands, where
access is close to impossible. But, like the Stone protesters in 1992,
their voices could be heard by millions of people. (Not West Coasters,
however. The Stone protest — as well as Sinead O'Connor's infamous
tearing up of a photo of the Pope, which occurred just six months later —
were both scrubbed from the later feed.) Despite all these precautions, however, there is virtually nothing
that NBC can do to prevent determined protesters from interrupting the
show with their voices — the one thing no metal detector or frisking can
keep from entering the studio. "Live television is live television," Montgomery says. "It may have a
delay, but it's still live. We're hoping someone can throw Trump off
his game."
